Popehat: America did a lot of terrible stuff to Dr. King, like jailing and abusing him and trying to get him to kill himself and killing him, but probably nothing so obscene as reinventing him in popular memory as some milquetoast whose primary concern was not hurting white people’s feelings.

America did a lot of terrible stuff to Dr. King, like jailing and abusing him and trying to get him to kill himself and killing him, but probably nothing so obscene as reinventing him in popular memory as some milquetoast whose primary concern was not hurting white people’s feelings.

[In this Dr. King resembles Jesus, who was deeply radical but who has been reinvented in popular imagination as a sort of safe youth pastor who really believes in love but you could totally see leaving for an internship at Deloitte.]

The John Wayneification of Jesus is outstanding, to the point that pastors are literally reporting being called out for using "woke" language such as "love your enemies" or "turn the other cheek".

Give me hippie dippie pussy jesus any day.

It's rare, but I appreciate authors like @scalzi.com who can show the brazen guts it takes to turn the other cheek under dire threat

Violence is easy. That's why it's the default human reaction. To face certain violence and death and respond not with violence but with calm, knowing it may cost you everything but build a better future you may never see, that is courage.

Few things make me question the popular imagination's reading comprehension as much as those Jesus-wirh-a-machine-gun pictures

Have you read the Revelation? The Kingdom of God doesn't exactly get established peacefully.

Tbh, the violence prophesied in the Revelation would be way more interesting than just a guy with a machine gun

matthew 10 34

I had to correct someone in my small group the other day when they were identifying with the “whip and flip” Jesus, and I had to let them know that Jesus reserved those actions for religious leaders who were oppressing others. For those of us who realize we’re screwups he’s always much more gentle.

Evergreen comic

Buddy Christ.

I have always found Dogma hilarious. I'm still not sure if it's satiric, prophetic, or both, but the way it manages to lampoon the franchisement of the Church while still conveying hope and a forward looking message has always stuck with me. It's a shame it's stuck in bootleg purgatory.

Also the casting was amazing and the delivery on point. Alan Rickman was a 11/10 Archangel and Alanis Morissette sold the non-conventional viewpoint. Best Kevin Smith movie hands down, fight me.

One of the best Alan Rickman's roles too.

Whenever I think of Alan Rickman, it not Snape I see, but the Metatron. The snarky but urgent delivery was part of what sold the first act.

Hans Gruber. 🤭

My second-favorite is his guest spot on King of the Hill.

Between that and Bill and Ted, George Carlin had some of my favorite film roles. G-d I miss him.

Dr. King's final sermon - The Drum Major Instinct - hits this on the head. "He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. They called him a rabble-rouser. They called him a troublemaker. They said he was an agitator. He practiced civil disobedience; he broke injunctions."

bethlehemfarm.net

This year we have people like Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec saying that MLK was a bad person and that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake. On one level I kind of appreciate that they’re at least being honest about what they really think.

And the Blessed Virgin Mary, who probably sounded something like The Truthettes when she told Elizabeth about her pregnancy: masscommons.wordpress.com/2023/07/16/m...

Morning Song – Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesusmasscommons.wordpress.com Can we make a deal? For every 100 austere hymns sung before demure, pale, blue-robed images of the Blessed Virgin Mary, could we have 1 song like The Truthettes'---who, as dark-skinned young women are...

Jesus Table-Flipping Christ

Same thing is happening to Lincoln:

Wild that the Lost Cause weirdos that perceive Lincoln as a cruel mastermind to the south's demise who didn't care about the lives of the Southern Gentry, somehow manage to have a less offensive reimagining of Lincoln than that f**king billboard.

What the...

Should read "Civil War is in you … pass it on"

"Inside you there are two wolves, one blue with a large industrial economy, and one gray that keeps human beings as property..."

The PassItOn billboards are funded by Republican billionaire Phil Anschutz

... We need more historical literacy. The context of the quote is why the quote is important. Lincoln was quoting the Bible from a section where the Pharisees were trying to question Jesus' legitimacy as an allegory to his times.

OMG these stupid Pass it On ads still exist?! They were EVERYWHERE in the early aughts. youtu.be/3v9e9JdPMdM?...

Honesty Ad Pass It On: Purseyoutu.be I do not own this video. All copyrights goes to Foundation For A Better Life.

"A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

People kill their prophets, then make monuments to them to obscure what they said. It’s a well worn pattern, at this point.

I dread the day when "From each according to his ability, to each according his needs" is just dating advice.

This is why I will tell anyone who asks that idol worship is the rot at the heart of American culture.

Letter from Birmingham County Jail was famously an apology to white moderates for the protests breaking the law in the Jim Crow south.

I saw this out of context and then got irrationally mad before I realized it was sarcasm

Yes. Brad DeLong did us all a favor in publishing this speech of MLK's 17 days before the famous "I have been to the mountaintop" speech. It gives the real MLK. (who I love, but it's clear why the Charlie Kirks of this world wanted him killed) braddelong.substack.com/p/martin-lut...

Martin Luther King, Jr.: At Bishop Charles Mason Temple of the Church of God in Christ, Memphis, Ten...braddelong.substack.com He was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968: "Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth. (Applause) One day...

Case in point:

MLK regularly said stuff like "I think socialism is great!"

Their new one is proclaiming MLK was a reactionary who opposed diversity

Me, every time someone quotes "I have a dream" out of context: NO, read THIS one

Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]www.africa.upenn.edu

Frankly, I think he'd be laughing at how thoroughly his enemies have to pretend to admire him now.

His entire thing was "I don't care HOW the whites feel, we deserve rights and will use every peaceful method we can to ensure we become equal!"

Even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he is victorious

White Jesus and White MLK drinking American beer together while draped in a flag.

Never forget.

they did the same to Helen Keller. They teach that she was a real model of what a disabled person should be- she overcame her disability by her own grit then was a silent inspiration once did 🙄

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